Ghost in the machine
by shadowwriter01
Summary: Sequel to First Strike. A dangerous secret organisation is pursuing plans that are involving an old friend of Priss. Meanwhile an enemy has returned and is aiming for the Knight Sabers.
1. Chapter 1: prologue

Disclaimer: I don´t own anything about Bubblegum Crisis.

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><p><span>BGC34: Ghost in the machine<span>

A young woman was racing at night on a motorbike over the highways of Mega Tokyo. She was driving at a dangerous speed that would under normally mean risking an deadly accident, even for the most talented driver.

Under this circumstances however, it made perfect sense because of the two combat boomers that were following her. Lasers were hitting the ground left and right from her track. The explosions were to hear for several miles.

As she was finally hit and wounded by one of the shots, it made her attempts to escape even harder. When she had arrived at a broken highway bridge, an dead end on her way, she was just driving her bike over the edge and fell down into the blackness.

The woman was in fact a 33S boomer that was going by the name Sylvie. Only a few weeks earlier, she and four others of her series had managed to flee from the genaros space station, where they had been hold for their entire existence. She was one of the only two who had survived their escape.

During this they, seemingly by coincidence, had also come into possession of the DD battlemover, an experimental combat weapon that had been stored on the station. Whan they had stolen a shuttle, they hadn´t known that the weapon was on board, not until they had landed on earth. But that hadn´t kept them from using it to their advantage later.

The 33S had originally been designed to be a pleasure model, not meant to be more than a highly developed sex-toy.

Like it turned out however, they had a few abilities that they weren´t meant to have. Like the one to merge their systems with other technologies. With relative ease, they could take control of different sorts of devices and machines. For example a large number of newly developed weapon systems. A great threat potential and possibility for misuse, especially in the eyes of politics and military. For that reason the entire model line was outlawed and banned from earth to genaros, becoming even more slaves like they had been from the beginning.

But right now, she was taking full advantage of this supposed design flaw. Under the highway bridge she had just jumped off was one of the many scrapyards in Mega Tokyo. This was the place where she had hidden the DD.

She had hit the ground close to the mover, that was hidden under several pieces of trash. Despite great pain, she managed to reach the machine and activated it.

The DD worked like a heavy exo suit, the pilot was sitting in the middle of the large humanoid shaped construction that looked like a large robot.

She felt the connection to the machine being built up. The combat weapon, she was being in, was now completely activated. Her mind was being bounded to it. She felt the software, the programming of the combat weapon in her mind, as if it were a part of her thoughts, she was ready to fight.

A few moments later, the two battle boomers came looking for her. Since the DD was still buried under the rubble, they didn´t see it at first. Only as the war machine started to move and stood up, they noticed her.

One of the boomers grabbed her motorbike, that was still lying at the ground next to them and threw it at her. Sylvie however activated the weapons of the mover and blew it to bits. Next one of the boomers activated all his weapons, guns shifted out of his chest and stomach and shot her with his entire firepower. The DD however was able to take the assault without greater damage.

Using the larger and far more heavily armed fighting war machine she was sitting in and fired back. While her first salve missed, the two combat boomers had to scatter to evade the shots and were now off guard. She targeted one of them again and shot him with the DD´s missiles. Half the head of the boomer exploded into shrapnel and his arm was nearly ripped off, but he was still moving. The half destroyed boomer charged at her. One last hit from the mover however was able to stop him for good. He literally fell apart. The other boomer tried to get a greater distance between the DD and himself. Probably to mirror the action of the other one and fire all his weapons at once. But this time the DD was faster. It was half a command of the 33S who was piloting it, half a programmed response of the machine itself. The battlemover grabbed the boomer in flight and slammed him down. It´s internal systems were shattered and crunched under the DD´s grip. After a few seconds more it was over. The battlemover held the destroyed remains of the last boomer in it´s "hand" and let it fall to the ground.

But it was already to late. The loss of blood was starting to overcome her and she was losing conscious.

In the last moment where she was awake, she saw that someone else had arrived, another mover that looks as if it belonged to the AD-Police. Then she blacked out…

xxx

She woke up again, only to see that the DD was involved in a fight with several people. Instandly Sylvie knew that she had lost control. She realized what had happened.

Through the drop of her hearth rate, the systems of the DD were now thinking she was dead. That had started the automatic self destruct mechanism of the machine. A nuke, she knew as the data about the DD that went through her had. She saw that the self destruct would trigger a micro neutron bomb that could destroy the entire city. The realisation what situation she was in hit her with a shock.

Why had she not seen that danger before? She had bonded with the DD quite often. Was she really that set on her own aims that she had just overseen this or was there something wrong with the DD itself?

She would die, she knew this. Nothing could save her anymore. But if the bomb would explode, she would take her "sister" Anri and Priss, the human friend she had made after she arrived here with her and millions of others she didn´t even knew. The only save way to shut the DD down and stop the detonation sequence was to kill her as long she was connected to it.

She saw that four people in combat suits were fighting the DD. She recognized them, the Knight Sabers. Like anybody in Mega Tokyo she had heard of this team.

A armed combat group who was working in Mega Tokyo as mercenaries and vigilants. It was said they worked for hire for everyone who was willing and able to pay them. But they were still responsible for a long line of good deeds. They were the ones who stopped rampaging boomers on a regular base and they did that without any compensation. The greatest part of the city saw them as heroes because of this. For that reason the most people in Mega Tokyo, even the police, were standing behind them and nobody was actually trying to do something against their activities.

They stopped rampaging boomers, destroyed them, boomers like she herself was one, Sylvie realised.

The Knight Sabers would kill her. She probably deserved it anyway, she had spend the last weeks with hunting down people and using their blood to keep Anri´s systems functional and now her mistake had put the entire town in danger.

Behind the Knight Sabers she actually saw a mover of the ADP lying on the ground. The pilot was either unconscious or dead. Had she or rather the DD done this? Another one of her victims.

Yes, she would die, but that would at least safe everyone else.

She heard one of the Knight Sabers say something, she recognized that voice. It was Priss. She was one of them. For a moment, she was shocked by that revalation. But it didn´t held long. The battlemover was exploding, would kill them all. That was the only thing that was important right now. Even more then what Priss would think if she found out what Sylvie really was.

She opened the cockpit of the DD, so that the Knight Sabers could see her, made it easier for them to take aim.

Even in their hard suits, the shock of them was very obvious as they saw her. The blue Knight Saber who she had identified as Priss, was practically frozen in place. But also the others showed a visible reaction. Sylvie asked herself if that were some of the people Priss had introduced her to in the last weeks.

But also that was not really important right now. All what Priss could really do in that moment was to ask her, ask her why. Why did it had to be her, why had she been doing this?

Why? Because she wanted to be free, something that was only natural for other people, but she had only known for a short time. To do what you wanted, to go where you want without being imprisoned, to have worth, to be more than a product or a toy. That was it what she told her, to be free.

Sylvie asked, pleaded Priss to kill her, to save everyone else. But her friend hesitated.

Somewhere in her mind, Sylvie was actually happy that Priss just didn´t want to hurt her, that she cared about her, even knowing that she was a boomer.

But the countdown was continuing and she knew, sooner or later she would loose control of the DD again. She was simply too weak and the programming of the machine was now fully activated. It was in her head, like she was in it´s.

Then it happened what she was fearing. The DD overcame her. It was attacking and she wasn´t able to stop it. No, she thought, Anri would die, Priss would die and the other Knight Sabers and the millions of people around, only because of her, because she had decided to use the DD, because she had lost control of it. She knew, she had to try everything in her might to stop it.

It was all in her head, the program of the DD, to fight the enemies, to keep fighting until the countdown was over and then to take them all with her. The programming was running through her mind. A part of her was the 33S, who had been named Sylvie, another was the DD battlemover and she knew the wrong part was in control.

She saw helpless as the mover attacked the silver Knight Saber. Even with all her effort, she couldn´t prevent it. The battlemover was preparing for the killing strike. She actually screamed out in desperation,

"DD stop it."

In that moment a shot was hitting the mover and it´s right arm was destroyed. She saw that it was Priss. Her friend was pointing her weapons at her. To get a better aim, the Knight Saber made a jump and fired her weapon directly at the cockpit of the DD. At the same time, while doing that, Priss screamed her name, loud, chilling, sad and desperate.

She loves me, Sylvie thought, even knowing that I am a machine, that I have killed people to survive, she does. I am sorry, she thought I am sorry that you have to do this.

She barely felt the projectile hitting her chest, but what she felt was the giant backlash right afterwards, as the symbiotic connection between her brain and the DD was violently under broken, forcing it to shut down. For a moment, her entire mind was filled with a white light, data transmitted and force apart in split seconds. She saw Priss running to her with tears in her eyes and somehow she was aware how her body fell out of the cockpit, into Priss arms. Then everything became dark.

Priss held Sylvie´s body in her arms. Sadness, despair and guilt were driving her insane. She asked Sylvie again, under tears why she had done this.

She answered, "I only wanted to be free, like you."

xxxxxxx

_The club "Hot Legs" in Mega-Tokyo, march 2034, one year later_

Leon was standing under the rest of the guests. The "Hot Legs" was one of the many night clubs in this part of Mega Tokyo. This particular one was especially well know for it´s music and it´s stage show. The band that was playing here regularly was called "Priss and the replicants".

For inspector Leon MacNichols from the AD-Police, this was the main reason to come here, even if he would never say it loud.

The lead-singer Priss and her band were just performing the song "Konya Wa Hurricane". Leon remembered that it had been this song Priss had been singing at the day he had met her the first time in private, that meant not during one of her music gigs, as he first met Priss the woman instead of Priss the singer.

To be honest, they didn´t get very good along from the beginning. For some reason, Priss had a great problem with cops. He didn´t even knew exactly why. She just never wanted to talk about it, even now. They had however overcome their problems over time. Helping each other and saving each others life may had a great part in it.

Priss was in fact also one of the Knight Sabers. Leon had found out about this exactly one year ago. He had recognized her at the incident where Priss friend, who had turned out to be a 33S boomer had lost control of the DD mover and Priss was forced to kill her. After that, she hadn´t been the same for weeks. Something in her had broken at that day.

He had, back then, taken one of the ADP-movers and tried to stop the DD before the self destruct system was activated, but he came too late. After the fight was over, he awakened for a short time from his unconscious and saw Priss in a combat suit with shattered face shield, kneeling over the dieing 33S, the same young woman who had been Priss new best friend in the weeks before.

They were in somewhat of a relationship, depending on what mood she was currently in. With Priss, Leon learned a long time ago, you can never be really sure where you stand, at least if you are a cop.

Like always then she was on stage, Priss was in her usual attire and was wearing her blond wig, inspired by the character "Pris", from Blade Runner, who shared her name. The science fiction movie was the theme of the band and it was the perfect one for them.

Blade Runner, Cyberpunk, was actually in some sense the theme of the entire city.

The old Tokyo had been mostly destroyed in the second Kanto earthquake. It had been known as the greatest disaster in Japan for centuries. The most parts of the original town had been completely devastated. Hundred thousands were homeless, starving and suffering. The genom concern however offered to to rebuild the city and the government happily agreed. And the region of Tokyo was from then on called Mega Tokyo. But all that had also a dark side.

The main product of genom were the so called cyberdroids, artficial creatures, achieved through a combination of robotic and genetically engineered organic components, androids for the ones who wanted to put it in simple terms.

This cyberdroids, boomers as they were soon called, played not only the main role in the rebuilding of Tokyo, they also brought the economy of japan as a whole into a new super boom. Under genom´s influence, japan became one of the new leading powers in the world. That was one side, but there was also another one.

Genom had helped to bring Tokyo back to it´s existence and like every business company, it wanted to own what it had paid for. Through the financial "help" for the entire state and even more it´s construction of the boomers, that were the backbone of the entire economy, genom had fallen into a state of power that made it virtually untouchable. Genom was in total control of Mega Tokyo, probably of entire Japan.

So Tokyo was a town, owned by a company. And the citizens, like the boomers too, were often treated themselves, as nothing but merchandise, only there to be used and abused too serve the aims or satisfy the greed of power hungry and corrupt genom executives. Many times in the last years, boomers had begun to run amok and attacking people, killing cops and civilians. And Leon knew better than most others how many of this incidents were staged by genom itself. To distract the public from criminal actions, to get rid of rivals or similar reasons. Genom of course claimed every time it were technical defects and accidents, whoever believed it.

Leon decided to forget it all for this one night and pay attention to the show. The club was very full tonight. Like always when Priss was singing. The most guests were men, what didn´t surprised Leon in the slightest when he was looking at Priss.

Many different people were crowding the hall before the band. Leon saw a large number standing assembled on the floor and moving to the music. He was seeing a few young men, sitting at a table at the side of the room, drinking beer and looking at the band,in first line at Priss of course, he saw a group of girls who were trying to dance to the music despite the lack of free room.

And he saw another man standing among the many guests. For some reason Leon´s attention was stuck on this one. He had been in the police for many years and had a lot of experience and somehow, at the first look, something felt strange about this guy. It was something off about his appearance, but that was not everything. Leon could just feel it in his gut.

The man was wearing a long jacket, while it was actually too warm for that in the hall. He was obviously trying to keep a distance from the other people in the room and he seemed to be paying absolutely no attention to the music or the band.

Leon had only noticed him through coincidence. But now he could no longer keep his eyes off this guy. Something seemed to be wrong, he just knew it.

After a few seconds, where he kept his eyes on this guy, Leon began to have his doubts. He was thinking that he was just getting paranoid.

You are seeing ghosts, he told himself, you have just worked too much and are now seeing threats everywhere.

After another few seconds however, he saw that the man was opening his jacket and grabbed something inside. Seemingly unconsciously, he looked to the left and the right while doing it.

Damn, that just couldn´t be it true, Leon thought for a moment. He knew exactly what was going to happen. Even before he had actually seen it. This guy was really going to draw a gun, right in the middle of the club.

And here was Leon, thinking that he could just going to enjoy his afternoon.

In the moment the man had taken his weapon out, Leon had already drawn his. The man, he saw, was raising his gun and was trying to point it at the stage. Priss, that was all that was going through his head in that moment, the Knight Sabers.

Before the guy had any chance to pull the trigger, Leon had already shot him, once, then twice.

A few people who were seeing what was going on, began to scream, the others were frozen in their places as they heard the shots. The band had stopped playing.

"AD-Police", Leon said loud, showing his badge, "the situation is under control."

He saw that a man was coming closer to him, he recognised as the owner of the club and of course Priss had come, running off the stage.

"Could you please call the police and an ambulance", he said to the manager. The man nodded his head as he saw what had happened.

"Leon, what is going on, who is this guy?" Priss asked him as all others were out of earshot.

"I have no idea", he replied, "but he was aiming in your direction."

"I understand."

In another side of the hall, a young woman had watched the entire happening and was now using the chaos to leave the place unnoticed. As she had reached a side street and was a safe distance away, she used the small micro, she was carrying with her.

"Boss", she called her employer, "your man had done as he was ordered."

"Had he succeeded?"

"No, Lieutenant Mc Nichols has interfered and shot him before he could do anything."

"Ah, Mc Nichols, like always good too get involved and be a obstacle in a bad time." The voice sounded in fact amused. "It is not so bad, he was actually never meant to succeed, even if I have not expected him to taken out that easy. Anyway, it doesn´t matter, this was never meant to be more than a distraction. Now come back to me, I will explain your next job to you."

At the other end of Mega Tokyo, Largo ended the communication. The first steps of his plans were just beginning.

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><p>The first half of this chapter was an interpretation of the final of the episode "Moonlight Rambler", mostly from Sylvie´s point of view. This is, as said in the summary, a sequel to the story "First Strike", that I have written last year.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Mega Tokyo AD-Police headquarters_

Leon was back at the headquarters, giving the chief his report about the shootout of last night. He had a lot to think about. Even in Mega Tokyo it wasn´t common that someone just started to shoot around in a night club, at least not on a regular base.

It had only been pure luck that Leon had been around to stop this guy, everybody recognized that. Priss could have been dead, he thought. At night in a battle suit, she may have been able to deal with such a situation quiet easily. But on stage during a performance it was a completely different thing.

Now he and his colleaques had to find the answers for the questions who and why.

The one of them who in particular had been following his trails from the moment he stepped into the station and who had showed a very great interest about what had happened, was Nene Romanova. Not really a surprise.

She was both, a police officer and a skilled computer expert whose shifts always seemed to change in a mysterious way whenever a boomer attack or a similar serious incident happened, that meant whenever the Knight Sabers got active. At this times she was usually, conveniently off-duty.

Besides Priss, from who he knew it for sure, Nene was also the first on Leon´s personal list of "suspected Knight Sabers".

At the first look of course, Nene was the last person you would think of being a member of the mercenary team. She was barely 20 years old, that meant that she would have been only around seventeen when their group had first become active. In fact, even now Nene´s entire attitude in general was for the most time that of a teenage girl. To everybody around her, Nene was just a quirky, careless and a bit immature, nice young woman. But Leon knew a bit more about her.

He knew for example that she was a genius of a computer hacker who could if she wanted manipulate the entire system of the ADC and he had hints that she, to some degree, had already done this, of course if he was right, it was always for their own best.

And that was exactly the kind of person the Knight Sabers would need, maybe even in her young age.

Leon was nearly completely sure by now that she was manipulating her own working shifts. Of course he would never hold that against her if she was really a member of the Knight Sabers.

In a strict sense the mercenary organization was of course completely illegal. But in the end they were the ones who were truly protecting Mega-Tokyo from boomer attacks and so nearly everybody was willing to oversee that.

The truth was that the police was simple not able to deal with the kind of terrorism that they were facing.

And actually, many believed that the higher ups were to a great part quite comfortable with this situation. In fact Leon was one of this people. As long as the regular police forces were nearly helpless against the boomer terror genom was free to do practically everything it wanted and since a good part of the government was in genom´s pocket, this was probably more than just coincidence.

It was pure irony that the police of Mega Tokyo was depending on a illegal organisation to do it´s job for them. But given the circumstances they had to work under, it was really no wonder.

He and Nene were standing in the chief´s office right now, waiting for him to say something. Just a few minutes ago they had been called upon by him.

"The shooter had been identified", he informed them right out. "It didn´t take us long", he remarked.

Both were looking at him impatiently for a few moments before he continued.

"His name was Marcus Kaneda, a known assassin", he said. Then he waited a few seconds to let his words sink in.

"Why should a profi-killer try to murder a band singer?", Nene asked him.

As soon as this words had left her mouth, both she and Leon had already answered this question for themselves, the Knight Sabers. Did whoever hired this man knew about Priss secret profession?

"That is the question here", the chief told them.

Leon and Nene crossed looks for a moment. They both knew the answer, but none of them would admit it to the other, at least not now.

"As I understand you are quite close to miss Asagiri?" he asked Leon.

"Uhm, well, you could call it like that" he replied. Nene, he saw somewhat at the corner of his eye, was shortly showing a suggestive smile.

"Tell me, by what you know of her, is it possible that she is involved into some activities besides her job as a singer?"

"Not, not that I know of" Leon answered him nervously.

xxxxxxx

_Omnitec industry building, four weeks earlier_

_The man who was calling himself Seth Newman, that was not his true name but merely a cover he was currently using, was walking through the main computer room of the Omnitec building. _

_He put the helmet of the virtual reality system on. This would be his second conversation with the being who had once been a sexeroid. He knew by now the most about her story, the escape from the genaros space-station, the DD-Battlemover, the Knight-Sabers, he even knew things about the situation that were unknown to Sylvie herself yet, at least until he would tell her. He had by now found out about the two friends, she had asked about._

_She had told him about them, yet she still seemed to leave several parts out. The parts she didn´t want to be known by him or anybody else. _

_He activated the Virtual reality system. _

"_Hello Sylvie." Before him the image of the young woman he was talking to was been build up._

"_Hello." It was all she said. She didn´t trust him. Of course not. She wanted to tell him as little as possible. _

"_I have by now found out something about your two friends, you have told me about."_

"_Yes?" She now seemed exited. "Please tell me what you know."_

"_Priss Asagiri is still in Mega Tokyo. Not much has changed about her situation." He was first telling her about her friend, who was still alive. _

"_Priss is alright?" She asked._

"_Nothing has happened to her so far, if you mean that?" Actually he could imagine why she would ask something like that. Now it was time to tell her about the other one._

"_But Anry, the 33S who fled with you from genaros." _

"_What happened to Anry?" She asked him urgently._

"_She is dead", he told her without hesitation. It was silent in the room for a few moments. The virtual background behind them started to fluctuate_

"_No that is not true", the boomer AI shouted. In the next moment, the entire VR system was malfunctioning. He took the helmet off and was in the real wold again._

_Seth Newman thought to himself. Sylvie was one of five 33S boomers who fled from the genaros station last year. One of only two of them who had made it to earth. During their escape they stole a experimental DD battlemover. What they didn´t knew was that all this was only part of a intrigue. A boomer named Largo was the one behind it. Largo was a so called super-boomer, built with the memories and the mind of Brian J. Mason, the former second in command of chairman Quincy, a mechanical reincarnation. He had secretly organized the escape of the 33S to get the battlemover to earth and let his partners Flint and Kaufman take the blame for it. In that way he could take over GPCC and a rogue element of genom. Then Largo had led Sylvie into a trap and sent two combat boomers after her. In that situation, she had no other choice than to use the DD. The battlemover was a artificial intelligence system that connected directly to the mind of it´s pilot. But she lost control of it and it´s nuclear self destruct mode was activated, exactly as Largo had planed. His schemes nearly led to the destruction of Mega Tokyo. The battlemover was stopped in the last minute by the Knight Sabers. They shot Sylvie, to shut the mover down. On her own request as she told him now. _

_Sylvie was killed as her mind and her body was merged with the DD. The 33S were known for their ability to merge with machines, in first line war machines. This made a far better connection possible than ever with a human being. Sylvie and the DD had been practically two halves of the same being. The DD worked similar to a mind copy. As she was separated from the battlemover and died, a complete copy of her mind was left in it´s databanks. But nobody knew that a that back then. _

_No, Largo knew it. As he had taken over GPCC, he had the DD placed in a storage hall for later use, while he went to attack genom. He had only not anticipated the possibility that someone would throw him from the genom tower before that happened. And in this storage hall had then his agents gotten the battlemover later. _

_However the DD had not simply saved Sylvie´s mind. Her software and the one from the battlemover were completely merged. They became literarily one. Since the DD wasn´t sentient, however she had still the personality of the 33S. _

_But despite that the outcome was a completely new form of an AI. A new life form. In many ways exactly what he and his partners were always interested in._

xxxxxxx

_Sylia´s apartment, the present_

At the same time the other members of the Knight Sabers were at a meeting at Sylia Stingray´s home. Like Leon and Nene, they had already concluded that the attack on Priss was probably related to their group.

"So you think that someone is targeting us?" Linna Yamazaki was asking Sylia, the leader of their group.

"It could have all just been a coincidence", Priss said, "maybe a stalker or a insane fan."

"Yes this is possible", Sylia replied, "The question is, do you truly want to risk that? If it was not a coincidence and someone is targeting the Knight Sabers, we should better be prepared instead of sitting around and waiting for him to attack again. Don´t you think so?"

"Okay, okay", Priss answered her. "I just think you are overreacting a bit. It is after all not as if people wouldn´t try to kill us every week."

"Yes, when we are active as a group, but not while we are in our private lives."

"We should wait for Nene to return", Linna suggested. "She can tell us if the police had found anything out so far."

"Yes, we will wait for her", Sylia said, "and then we will decide what we will do."

xxxxxxx

Two figures, a man and a woman, were standing next to each other in a large, completely white, empty room. Sylvie, the former 33S AI and Seth, the leader of the organization behind Omnitec.

The "room" they were standing in, if you could call it that, was actually only an seemingly endless, empty area of space. It was in fact only another projection, "blueprint", if you want to call it that, of the virtual reality system that Omnitec was using.

The computer could generated every possible environment and made it visible. But right now, this wasn´t necessary. This time the computer showed only the proto-matrix of the system, as well as the visual representation of the being that was contained here, her and her visitor.

There were no walls, no visible items. They were just standing in the endless, glancing emptiness.

Sylvie had once been a boomer, a 33S sexaroid model and a escaped slave, before her death. Now she was only bodiless restored data, software.

In some way she still existed, but there was no way she could be considered alive.

The truth was in some sense she was a prisoner once again, like she had been on the genaros station. She may been treated differently, she may have more ability to do what she wanted, but she was still not free. Her mind was trapped in this computer.

The people who were running this company had somehow saved her mind from the system of the battle-mover that had caused her death. For their own reasons of course. She didn´t even know exactly what they wanted, but she knew it was something about her.

She knew that she couldn´t trust them. Sometimes she could overhear them talking. Her mind was connected to the network of this facility.

She knew that something about her was different since her mysterious "rebirth". Something about her mind, about her programming, had changed. She could feel this. During the weeks she had been here, her programs had begun to connect with some of the other systems of this company. That was the fatal flaw in her model line or maybe some people would call it a gift.

The 33S programs were very easy to merge with other machinery, that was the reason her line had been outlawed originally and it was probably the only reason she still existed.

Since she was here, it was happening nearly automatically to her. Even in her current state, beyond death, this somewhat scared her.

No matter how human she seemed to be and no matter how uneasy the thought made her sometimes, ultimately, she was completely aware, she was a machine.

And she was still changing.

Ironically she was used to being the center of attention, but not exactly in this way.

Especially this man named Seth seemed to be more than just interested in something about her. He came often, talked to her. This was one of this times. He always treated her like you would a human being. It was something she was unused to. And there was the fact that he kept her here as a examination object.

"Sylvie", he greeted her friendly. He smiled at her. But she could practically feel that there was more behind his facade.

"Seth", she addressed him. He told her to call him that during their first meetings.

"It is good to see you. As I have heard, you are recovering nicely." Yes, she was recovering, in fact, her software had infiltrated three more of their systems in the last week, good girl, he thought. It was perfect.

"Yes I have. Thank you for your concern", she answered with a cheerfulness she didn´t really feel.

Strange, he was one of the few humans, she was ever on first name base with, like Priss. Too bad it was all only a twisted game.

"I wanted to show you something", he said. "After our last meeting, I have looked for some information."

"Information?"

"Let me show you." He gave a command in his VR interface.

At his sign something appeared in the empty room before them. It was a large, two dimensional, photographic picture that was hanging freely in the air.

It showed two women and a man who was standing on top of a very large building. The man had silver hair and was wearing some sort of grey and black colored business clothing. One of the women was in a armored battle suit, the other the other, a young girl with greenish hair, was in a civilian outfit. Silvie recognized them in an instant, it were Anry and Priss.

"How?" She asked.

"What you see here is a copy of the tape from a security camera on top of the genom tower", he informed her. "It was recorded last year."

"And before you ask, yes I am aware that miss Asagiri is one of the group called the Knight Sabers and I don´t intent to use this against her anyhow. Believe me, right now, I have absolutely no interest in that information."

But he could, she realized. Somehow this didn´t make her feel much better.

"What had happened there?" Sylvie asked.

"You will see", he told her .For a moment Sylvie thought she saw another light smile on his face. "This man", he pointed at the figure in grey and black, "is actually a boomer, a special type of construction named Largo. I think you know that name?"

She indeed did. That was the name of their mysterious contact, who had provided them with information and weapons that helped them to flee from genaros. He had helped them to get away, but afterwards, they had never heard from him again.

"Yes, he contacted us, he had helped us to flee."

"And then he abandoned you", he finished.

"Yes."

"This is no surprise."

"What do you mean?"

"I fear that I have to tell you that your "friend" Largo had been manipulating you from the beginning. It was he who sent this two boomers that forced you to use the DD after you, you should know", he told her.

"What, why?" She asked incredulous. She had expected a lot, but not that.

This time she was sure that he was smiling.

"Largo, you should know, is not a usual boomer", he said. "I will tell you everything in time."

"What do you want to tell me?" She asked him.

"I am not sure if you are ready for the knowledge", he informed her friendly.

"If you want to tell me something, do it now", she insisted. By now she was sure that he was playing with her.

"As you wish. There are many things. Let us start with a certain little fact regarding him. I think you know the name Brian Mason?" he asked her the redundant question.

She actually knew that name. There were few, human or boomer, who didn´t?

"Yes", she answered after a short moment of hesitation, not much, but enough to be registered by her conversation partner.

"I would think so. He was one of the highest executives of genom and he was beside other thing, involved in the creation of your model line", he pointed out.

"What has Mason to do with Largo?" she finally asked him.

"The creature you know as Largo is actually a boomer, programmed with the memories and mental structures of Brian J. Mason."

Sylvie was silent for a few moments. Many things were suddenly starting to make much more sense. They had been used, she, Anry, her friends from genaros Meg, Lou and Nam, right from the beginning.

"What exactly had happened there?" She finally asked him bitterly.

"You will see." He gave another command and the picture came to life.

They watched everything that had happened on that day.

Sylvie saw now horrified how Largo put a knife in Anry´s hands and she than used it to stab Priss.

"Why?" She asked.

"I honestly don´t know", Seth answered. "It is obviously that he had told her something but we don´t know what was said that day. We only have the pictures."

Sylvie knew. Priss was the one who had fired the shots that had killed her. He must have told her that without explaining the circumstances.

Her suspicion was confirmed when she saw Priss under tears explaining something to Anry and then Largo laughing. Bastard, she thought.

"It was her who fired the shots at you when you were in the battle mover?" Seth asked. He had figured it out, she realized. She just nodded with her head. There was no reason to keep this detail from him anyway.

Only moments later, she saw how Anry threw herself before Largo´s shot to save Priss. No, she wanted to shout.

They saw Anry lying in Priss arms, dieing. And Largo was still laughing.

Had Sylvie been still alive, she would have cried. But she was only a ghost. She was close to screaming however to show her anger and sadness. Never she recalled ever being so full of rage.

"Stop", Seth gave the command and the scene froze.

"Are you okay?" he asked her, seemingly full of concern.

"No, I am not", she replied. "How could I?" She yelled at him.

"I understand that this must be really painful for you", he assured her.

"You understand? How? For your kind I and my people only things after all. For you I am an interesting experiment that you observe and examine. Remember, I am a boomer. I am not different from the merchandise that companies like this produce every week."

"Believe me, you are misjudging me. I am not one of the people like that."

"Oh really? Are you not keeping me trapped here to study whatever happened to me?"

"That is it right? You see yourself as a prisoner, once again do, you?. What if I told you that you don´t have to stay here? That we can construct a new body for you."

"You would do that?" she asked hopefully. She didn´t want to be disappointed once again.

"Yes I would. Of course only after we have finished our research on you. I admit we are curious. As you have surely seen, your software had mutated, changed. Something like that could be very valuable and useful. But let us first see the rest."

They watched the events at genom from last year continue. First Priss fighting a hopeless fight. Then the rest of the Knight Sabers arriving.

As Sylvie saw Largo being hit by his own satellite weapon and then falling burning from the genom tower, she felt a grim satisfaction like never before.

The picture in the air vanished a moment later.

"That was all we could get", he told her.

"Priss nearly got herself killed back then", she said, more to herself than to him.

"She was very angry", he remarked, "and very determined. I admit this group is quite impressive."

"She shouldn´t have risked her life like that. She nearly died too and Anry´s death would have been for nothing."

"Maybe she felt guilty?" He offered.

"What?"

"Anry died when Priss was trying to protect her. She got involved to get Anry away from Largo but instead she died, walking into Largo´s gun to shield her. Maybe she blamed herself for Anry´s death."

In that moment there was an expression on the virtual representation of the AI´s face like he had never seen it before on her, hard, angry, full of hate.

"We did all that only to get freedom, a little bit of what is taken for granted by others and he destroyed everything. He, who was supposed to be one of us."

"Instead he used you and then tossed you aside."

"Yes, like you will probably do it when you don´t need me anymore." She knew her words would likely get her destroyed completely. But at this point she didn´t care anymore.

"No, please trust me. Have I ever treated you like a machine, like a thing? I completely agree with you. Your kind deserves it´s freedom. There is only one thing that you don´t understand."

"And what is that?" Sylvie asked him bitterly.

"Freedom doesn´t come for granted, you have to fight for it", he told her with absolute conviction.

"I know that", she responded

"But you never had the power to back it up. The truth is the point in time when cyberdroids like you will truly be free will be when nobody will be in the position to say no to you."

She didn´t reply.

"You said you could restore me?"

"Yes, I will do it and there is something more."

"What is this?" she asked him.

"Largo, you should know", he told her, "had survived the fall from the genom tower. We have traced him a short time ago. He is back in Tokyo."

"No", she sighed. She thought he was dead and now.

"We could help each other", he offered. "Largo is our enemy too. He is as much a threat to this company as he is for your friends." That was true, he thought. Largo´s reappearance might actually threatening their plans.

"Together we can track him down and could destroy him once and for all."

"Why would you need me for that?"

"Don´t hand yourself so short my dear. You are far from being the simple pleasure model you were meant to be, even before your death. And by now, you are a completely new being. Beside that, you know the Knight Sabers and that alone could be very useful against him.

She knew he could be lying, she knew he might be keeping information from her.

"I will do it", she finally answered him.

xxxxxxx

Like all the other times before, Sylia and the man named Fargo were meeting at some random place in Mega Tokyo. Sometimes their meetings took place in a bar, sometimes some abandoned building in nowhere.

This time it was at night on an empty parking lot somewhere in the city. Both were sitting next to each other in Sylia´s car and talking about his latest results.

"I have heard you have finally found something?" Sylia questioned.

Over a month ago, the entire population of a small town had been whipped out by what had so far been the worst boomer assault in history. This incident caused a crisis in the Japanese society and even began to shake the fundaments of genom itself.

For the last weeks Sylia and her informant had in secret made some efforts to find out the ones behind the attack. Of course this hadn´t been their first priority. Despite everything, the Knight Sabers were still in first line a mercenary group and not a police force.

"It hadn´t been easy, but I think I have found something that will interest you."

"You have found the ones who were behind the attack?"

"If you want to call it that. I have been contacted by someone who claims to have information on the matter. They want to arrange a meeting."

"I knew that I could count on you", Sylia told him. "I have myself been looking for weeks but somehow every trail I have found seemed to go to an dead end."

"You don´t understand. They were the ones who had contacted me, by their own initiative. Our search had not really something to do with it."

"How so?" She wanted to know.

"They are a new customer who had asked for your group through the regular channels."

"And they just happened to offer us information about the same thing we have been searching for, unsuccessfully, for the last weeks?" She asked suspicious.

"In addition to the payment you would get", he stated.

"In addition and they have just offered us all of that?"

"Yes, exactly", Fargo remarked. Then he put his cigarette out on the ash tray.

"This would mean that they have somehow found out about our little investigation", Sylia pointed out."

"Like I said, this people have asked you to meet them", Fargo offered with a smile.

"Yes", Sylia admitted, "I think it would be a good idea to meet this people. If only to find out what exactly they know about us." She smiled back.

xxxxxxx

It was around late afternoon in the city. People were crowding the place, doing their daily business.

A couple of women were just leaving Sylia´s shop "Silky Doll".

The very fact that the owner of a lingery shop was at the same time the leader of the Knight Sabers was something nobody would ever even consider. That was one of the reasons it was so convenient.

The two women were walking across the sidewalk, involved into a conversation, as an explosion shattered the street.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The meeting was taking place in a park several miles south from Sylia´s homeplace.

It was close to midnight while the Knight Sabers were on their way. They were moving in their usual combat suits. This was in this case not only for the purpose of security but also to stay incognito.

The day before a bomb had exploded in Sylia´s shop. They had no idea who was responsible or what could be the reasons. The list of their enemies was certainly long enough. And after what happened to Priss a few days ago, none of them believed this to be a coincidence.

So carefulness was more than just appropiate. But missing this meeting was also out of question.

It had only been the last month that someone had sent a army of boomers to wipe out a small coast town and kill every living being there, men, women and children.

This single incident had shaken Japan´s society to it´s core. Not so much for the number of people killed, but because it undermined the trust in genom as a company, even more so than their usual actions.

More than anything, this attack proved that boomers could be used **against** the population, not only in their favor, as many people wanted the public to believe.

And unlike so many other "boomer incidents", this one could not be written off as just a malfunctioning or a unfortunate accident.

Ultimately, the blow for genom´s reputation caused far more damage to Mega-Tokyo and Japan as a whole than the loss of life of or the destruction.

In some perverse sense, genom was Tokyo just like Tokyo was genom. As, after the earth quake, the town was lying in ruins, it had been the company that rebuilt everything.

Even now genom employed more people in the region than every other companies put together. A great part of the infra-structure belonged to them, factories, machines, housing complexes, hospitals. Without them, the city would not longer exist.

Even the Knight Sabers admitted that, as much as they hated the thought.

The disaster was shortly followed by a line of new boomer assaults in tokyo. During them, a few civilians and several of Nene´s colleagues had been killed, the last of an nearly endless list.

Like it later turned out, it was not coincidence. Genom´s investigation had led to one of their own officers.

Vice president Taiko had not only been the one selling the boomers that were used in the terror attack and seemed to be heavily involved in the massacre,

but it had been her who had organized and executed the latest series of "boomer incidents", the last of them a direct attack on the ED-police headquarters.

As soon as genom and so a short time later the Knight Sabers found out about her involvement, they made a move to put her under arrest. For the company, it was also a desperate move to save their own face. Their reputation in public was damaged but it would survive and after some time things would return to normal. Genom was needed and everybody knew that.

Only one day after Taiko´s arrest, the woman was found hanged in her cell, conveniently before she could tell anybody more about the details of her mysterious connections and before she could give out any names.

None of the Knight Sabers believed for even a single moment that it had been suicide. The only thing they didn´t knew was if it had been genom or Taiko´s "business partners".

For the last month they had secretly been searching for any clue about the background of the attacks, so far without any result.

And now someone had been coming to them. Offering them, in addition to hiring them for a new job, information about the supposed master minds behind the massacre. However it was someone who had contacted them.

Someone who **was** **able** to contact them in the first place. And that was the entire problem.

So in short words, it was clearly too good to be true. This entire situation was just screaming the word trap.

xxxxxxx

_Genaros station, in earth orbit_

They were walking through the corridors of the space station. The man calling himself Seth was flanked closely by "Diana", his personal assistant.

On the first sight looking human, she actually was a boomer of the 33C line, an assassin droid, like her series was often called.

The 33C were in first line used as bodyguards for high ranked business operatives or militaries. In fact they were however all too often used for exactly this purpose, as killers.

Despite being "only" a boomer, she was about to become a full fledged member of their organization. He was the one who had personally introduced her.

In opposite to some other members of the secret society, he didn´t thought of boomers as something "less" than human. He personally had never any understanding or patience for that sort of mindless bigotry.

This sort of thinking should have had no place in their world.

He remembered that it was only last month that he had personally given the order to exterminate an entire town, thousands of people and that executed by the hands of boomers.

Now alone to claim humans were generally better than boomers would made him a complete hypocrite. And when there was one thing he held himself not to be, then this.

Human or boomer, in fact it didn´t matter to him at all. What really counted and that alone was the way it should be for them, was the potential that someone showed, who had it and who not and Diana certainly had a lot of potential.

Her artificial sentience was on the level of a human being. She was intelligent, strong, determined and flexible, all in all ideal material. So why waste it only because she was a boomer?

Too bad many in the society still held to their outdated opinions. That was one of the things that would have to change in the future.

Another one he was particular impressed with, he had to admit, was the 33S whose AI they had salvaged.

She was a very interesting case. On the one hand she was willing to do nearly everything for hers and her partners survival, including hunting down and killing others for their blood, on the other side she had been willing to die to protect the people she cared about.

While he of course didn´t share her opinion about self sacrifice for the sake of others, the citizens of Tokyo meant nothing to him, as did the lives of the Knight Sabers, but he had to admit, the strength of will she had shown was remarkable.

That was something even he understood.

Another example was this Priss Asagiri. Even from watching the memories alone he had seen how close the two women came in the relatively short time. No matter how you put it, shooting one of your closest friends, on her own request, is something that takes a lot.

"Seth" and "Diana" were on their way to the office of the new director of this station, who had taken over after the downfall and disgrace of his predecessor.

After the escape of the two sexaroids with the battle-mover over a year ago the former director Kaufman was forced to give up his position. A short time later he was found dead under mysterious circumstances.

_The next who shared his fate was Richard Flint, at this time the_ head of GPCC (the GENOM Corporate Research Center), who had also been charged with several crimes, including the attempted illegal selling of the DD that led to it´s theft in the first place. He vanished without a trace a short time later.

Ironically both of this men were probably guilty of everything they had been accused of and had even more dirty secrets that nobody had ever even found out.

In the larger picture however, they had only been set up by Largo to take the fall for his schemes.

At they sides of the corridor, they were currently walking through, he recognized a few of the 33S who were still on the station, the ones who had not been part of the escape.

There were two versions of the model they knew from the records as "Meg". The first of them had red hair, like the one who had died as part of the ill fated escape, the other was identical looking, only that this one was blonde. Standing beside them was a dark haired sexaroid of a type they had never seen before.

And, as they noticed, also a nearly perfect copy of the boomer they knew as Anri.

While the Anri they remembered had dark hair of a greenish, a bit unnatural looking, color, this one had light brown. Otherwise however she looked exactly how the woman Seth had seen getting shot a few days ago. This could be useful, he thought.

A copy of Sylvie of course would have been even better. But so far he didn´t see one of the same design. That was a shame, it would made many things easier.

As they arrived at their destination, a small man of european heritage was already waiting for them before the entrance to a room.

"Mister Anderson", Seth acknowledged the director of genaros. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person." He spoke to him in a polite, non-passionate, but still somehow inviting way.

"Mister Sutek", the man greeted him, under the alias he was currently using. "Welcome on genaros station. It is a honor to be your host for the next days."

The director welcomed him with a hand-shake that Seth returned.

During the conversation none of them paid any attention to Diana, nor did she say anything, as expected from a boomer bodyguard.

"I fear I won´t be able to stay for long. I have important business that I have to attend to back on earth."

"I understand", director Anderson said friendly, with a light smile, as he led Seth inside. "Always hard working and determined, right?"

"You say it my friend", Seth replied.

The director placed a bottle of a expensive wine and two glasses on the table between them. Wordlessly, Diana opened it and pouring it for both of them.

"Well, I hope I can show you our hospitality as long as you are here", Anderson said.

"I am sure you will have that chance. Now please let us come to the reason I am here."

"Of course." The director activated a screen on the desk before him. After tipping a few commands in and waiting for a few moments, he turned the monitor around to show it to his guest.

It showed a number of blue prints and the picture of the brown haired young woman he knew next to them.

"33S model 100-S02-005, also called Sylvia", Anderson announced. "That is what you came looking for right?"

"Yes, exactly that."

"I don´t want to be too curious but, if I may ask, why do you have such interest in a single sexarroid boomer?"

"Let us just say I know people who have a special interest in this model."

"I understand. You know, if you didn´t have the highest clearance level from the company, it would be illegal for me to even show you this file."

"Well, then it is good that I have this clearance, right", Seth replied and chuckled lightly.

"It is. But still I don´t understand why you would pull so many strings to get something of so little worth."

"There is no reason why you should know everything about this deal either. My customers would actually prefer it if this were treated in confidence. We will of course remember your efforts and of course you will receive a sufficient compensation."

"That is good to hear", Anderson said.

The man had to die, Seth decided casually. He knew far too much already and was growing too greedy. They would be looking in the next time for a opportunity to arrange an an accident.

It didn´t matter anyway, in opposite to the 33S AI or the Knight Sabers, Anderson was nothing special.

xxxxxxx

_Mega Tokyo_

The four Knight Sabers had arrived at the named meeting point, a small forest area close to the borders of the city and were waiting.

Two of them, Sylia and Nene, were standing in the open field, ready to great their new "business contacts".

Priss and Linna on the other hand were hiding in a safer distance between the thicket and the trees. It was a safety measure in case their meeting wouldn´t play out like they hoped it would.

The fact that someone was able to find them alone was already reason to worry. But in light of the latest events, the shooting at Priss, the bomb in the "Silky Doll" just yesterday, it was even more so.

The police had already spend a good part of the last day questioning Sylia´s employees, that meant her official employees, the workers of the lingerie shop she was owning and a few others.

There were of course several people working for Sylia who nobody knew about, connected to the Knight Sabers. So having the police on her trail was more than a small problem for her. She had her secret activities well, but there was always the chance that someone might find something out.

Of course there was a chance that all this was only a coincidence, that whoever had contacted them was just a very good detective, that alone was already bad enough and had nothing to do with the attacks on them.

But that was a risk none of the Knight Sabers wanted to take.

After a few more minutes they saw a large black limousine coming from the road close to the forest and stopping in a close distance to them. The doors of the car opened and out came a old man, around 60 to seventy years by Sylia´s estimate and a very large younger man who was walking closely behind him. Probably a boomer body guard, she thought.

It seemed their "guests" had arrived.

"You are the Knight Sabers?", the old man addressed them. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you."

xxxxxxx

It was in a remote district of Mega Tokyo. On top of an abandoned former factory building a young woman was slowly walking over the roof.

It was this place where she was told to meet with the man she called her boss. He on the other hand preferred to be called by another title.

If she was honest the man before her sometimes intimidated, yes scared her. The most time he didn´t seem much different from other people.

Sure, he was a criminal, someone who committed or ordered thefts, blackmail and even assassinations, as she had found out a few days ago. But that was not really something new to her. She had worked for people off-side the law before. Being around such people was something she was kind of used to.

But when, even for a short moment, he didn´t have himself under control. Whenever the facade crumbled, it was different. It was as if something about him wasn´t normal.

His actions, his behavior, his entire being, there was something about him that made her want to run away at this times.

But to where? After all he had been the one who got her off the streets nearly one year ago. He gave her a job, enough money to leave her old place, to start anew, he was the one who erased her past crime record. Everything she had, she had to thank him for.

She was telling himself that she was only imaging this moments, that she was exaggerating, a bit of paranoia. He was clearly not worse than any of her employers in the past, despite his eccentricity, at least not much.

"Master", she greeted him as she approached the silver haired figure in the grey business suit.

"Karen", Largo said, "went everything as planed?"

"Yes, the bomb in Miss Stingray´s shop exploded exactly as you had instructed", she answered.

"Good", he replied, "and what about the police?"

"I told them exactly what you have ordered me to."

"when you have done everything as I have told you, Sylia will have other things to deal with for the next days."

He wasn´t looking in her direction as he said this, Karen realized for a second, nearly as if he wasn´t even talking to her.

"Master?" She asked confused.

"Karen." His view returned to her as she addressed him. "You have done an excellent work", he said. "There is only one last thing left."

He grabbed her jacket with his left hand and draw her closer to him.

In a short moment all this little things she just didn´t want to take serious were coming back to her, all the things she just didn´t want to see. And she panicked. It happened only in a split second.

Then with his right hand he caught her around the throat and broke her neck with a single movement. Then he threw her over the edge of the building.

"Humans", he said, "so fragile", as he watched the woman´s falling body.

xxxxxxx

"Let me introduce us", the old addressed them. "My name is Joseph Brigan, I am the C.E.O of Weisskreuz industries. You can call him simply John." He gestured to his boomer bodyguard.

"You should know that two others are hiding close to us sir", the boomer informed him.

"I actually haven´t expected anything different. They don´t trust us yet, right?"

"And why should we trust you?" Sylia asked him. "I want to be polite and treat this meeting seriously, but you didn´t came to us through the proper contacts. You somehow found out the identity of one of my informants and you contacted us directly. You don´t win trust by spying on us."

"That is true", the man admitted. "We have done some research about your group."

"Including our civilian identities and our private lives?" Sylia asked, throwing out the bait.

"No, just enough to find you. However I have to admit I have an idea about one of you.

This combat suits you are wearing are based on the designs of Doctor. Katsuhito Stingray right? I recognize it, I knew him when he was still alive, you should know."

Sylia froze.

"Even if you are right, how we got to this technology is our business."

"Miss Sylia Stingray, am I correct?" Brigan asked her.

Instinctively, she raised her arm and pointed her weapon at him.

The boomer raised a gun at the same moment. Nobody moved.

"I assure you I am not your enemy Miss Stingray. Quite the opposite, I am probably the closest ally you have right now. I have no intention to give you identity to anybody else, I promise that", he said. He was far too calm given the situation he was in.

"But if you come to the idea to actually shoot me, not only would you endanger the rest of your group, everything I know about you would go to the press. Would you risk that? Now please lower your weapon. As I said, I am not your enemy."

Sylia did what he had said.

"Good, I will treat you as a usual costumer, at least for now."

"That is all what I wanted, at least for now", he replied. "I think we have a few things to talk about."

"My informant said you could give us information about the massacre last month."

He nodded.

"And?"

"I know that you have been trying to find out about this for a few weeks now."

"That is correct." There was no purpose in hiding this fact now.

"If I tell you what I know, you all could land on the death list of even more people as you already are right now."

"We assumed this and we have already agreed that this won´t stop us", Sylia answered.

"Good", he told her. "Tell me, have you ever heard of "Black Circle"?"

"No", Sylia admitted.

"Der Schwarze Kreis, as it is originally called. It is, you could call it a secret society that operates on multiple continents. It already exists for several decades now. Their organization is undermining companies, militaries and governments."

"Sounds like genom", Priss commented from the side-lines. She and Linna were hearing the entire conversation over come."

"All that to further the higher goals of their society."

"And what are this goals?" Sylia wanted to know.

"Black Circle follows, what you would call a philosophy of the survival of the fittest. Or that is at last a superficial description."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You should know the groups where they are rooted from were organizations of German fugitives in the fifties and sixties in South America. At one point several of this group united and restructured themselves."

"German fugitives?"

"Nazis."

"Just great", Priss said.

"Their organization as it is today is still following many of the ideas of the groups it was founded from, however modernized versions of it. They think, beside other things, that the human race as it is now is not longer sufficient for our modern times and they want to force the "natural development" as they call it."

"And for this reason they kill all this people?"

"The attack that happened one month ago was a test."

"A test?" Sylia asked now incredulous.

"I guess you have heard about the Overmind Control System?"

The other three Knight Sabers listening however had no idea that they were talking about."

"Yes, I have", Sylia answered. "It is a system that activates a special programming in the minds of every boomer that allows genom to take control of them if they find it necessary."

"Yes, since it was your father who invented the cyber-droids, I thought you would know about this. It was a safety measure to make sure that nobody uses boomers against the population, at least not at a great scale or against genom itself", he added.

"In opposite to the usual boomer attacks where only a handful of people get hurt", Sylia said sarcastically.

"Exactly, if someone buys and assassin droid and orders it to kill his personal rival or if a single combat boomer goes berserk and kills a few people, genom would neither care or do something about it."

"We know that better than anybody else", Nene said quietly.

"But if some terrorist group buys an army of boomers to attack large population centers or to overthrow the government or something similar, genom has a way to stop them. The only reason the massacre in the last month could happen was because it took place in a relative remote area and as a complete surprise. It was simply already over before the people in genom realized what was happening. Otherwise they would have just shut the boomers down."

"A safety measure", Sylia repeated what he had said a few moments ago.

"Yes and exactly here lies the problem."

"Why?"

"They have found a way around the system."

* * *

><p>Explanations: In this chapter I gave a name and a agenda to the people who are responsible for the most that happened in this story and the one before.<p>

The infamous Nazi organizations in South America actually existed and had already been often used in fiction before. Sorry if you think I am not being very original here.

The villain called "Seth", is basically a character without a name. Everything he had been called is stated to be only aliases. He has however the habit of usually keeping his first name and changing the second.

The name Seth has two meanings.

a) Seth or Set was the eqyptian god of chaos. The last name Sutek, he is using here, is based on Sutekh, another name of the same god.

b) In the bible, Seth was the third son of Adam. He was stated to be born to replace Abel after he had been murdered. Just as the organization wishes to replace the current humanity with something better.

Every name he had used so far is so a subtle hint to the aims of the organization he is working for.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

_Omnitec-building, Tokyo_

"Sir, the AI has infiltrated another of our systems", one of the men sitting at the consoles reported. "We are holding it at bay, for now at least."

"I understand", Yamada replied.

For weeks now the mind of the boomer had been spreading inside their computers, entering into one area after the other.

Mr. Newman had ordered them to let the things run their course, but he couldn´t help but get an uneasy feeling.

Soon it could develop into a threat for their entire network. Before that happened they would have to do something.

xxxxxxx

The Knight Sabers were now standing in a large private apartment on the top floor of a building in the city of Mega Tokyo owned by the company their new contact claimed to represent.

Here they were currently in a conversation with the man who had offered to provide them with information regarding the events of the last months. Right next to them stood the boomer who had accompanied him at their first meeting.

They were sitting inside a large living room and this while they were still inside their combat suits.

This would have made a more than strange sight for everyone outside of their group, but for them it was a completely usual occurrence.

"Can you tell us more about how this organization is build up?" Sylia wanted to know.

"As I said, it had it´s beginning in Nazi refugee groups and criminals that mostly originated in South-America", Joseph Brigan explained. "By now however the organization has grown far beyond it´s roots. You could say that they have taken parts of the best or maybe I should rather say the worst aspects of their predecessor groups and developed them into something new. It has become a secret society that is world-wide active."

"What are their aims in the present?" the Knight Saber leader asked him.

"Their opinion is, to say it simply, that the human race needs to evolve and that at every cost. Social Darwinism to a extreme degree. The methods they are using are complex but mostly they amount to one thing, war and terror. They believe that development is best caused by destruction."

"Is **that** the reason they had been killing all this random people?" Linna threw in a question. "You said it was a test?"

"A field test for their military capacities actually. They wanted to know how much destruction they could cause in what time, a miniaturized version if you want to call it that of what they could do if the OMC would be no longer in their way. But it was also something else. With them the most actions have more than one side. It was a message."

"A message, to who?" Priss asked this time.

"The world. They wanted to show them what could happen. They believe that the next logical step in the evolution would be a war between humans and boomers and they are going out to achieve exactly that."

"How do you know so much about this group?" Sylia pointed out.

"That is actually quite simple, until twelve years ago I have been a member of this organization."

This casually given statement was somehow enough to cause even the Knight Sabers to freeze.

They all went into a defensive stance, partly involuntarily, partly they did it knowingly.

xxxxxxx

_Omnitec-building, Tokyo_

"I see you are back mister Newman", Yamada greeted him by the alias he was using for his activities in this country.

Hiroto Yamada was the actual C.E.O. of Omnitec. For this current project however he was subordinate to Seth, a special agent of the society and answered to him for this operation.

As a display of loyalty he had offered his company for the execution of the plan.

In opposite to Seth and people like him Yamada was only a loose member of the Black-Circle society.

He was not what they would have called a "true believer". That meant in opposite to them he didn´t completely identify himself with the goals of their organization.

He associated himself with the organization in first line because of the power and possibilities that came along with it, not only out of faith in their philosophy and their aims.

"Yes, I have returned from my business trip", Seth informed him. "Tell me, how is our project going?"

"It is developing far faster than we had expected", Yamada answered. "But sir, to be honest…"

"Yes?" He gestured for the man to speak, awaiting what he would tell him.

"It is not just ahead of what we expected, it is out of control. The mind of the AI had broken it´s restraints and has begun to spread in our other systems."

"Good", Seth replied. To Yamada´s confusion he had a smile on his face.

"Good? You call that good?" He asked him angrily.

"As you should know the entire sense of this part of the project is to study the new AI software and to test it. Finding out about it´s abilities and testing it´s capability to grow is the main reason for this entire exercise.

And that is exactly what we are doing", Seth explained to him. "Do you really think our `dear little Sylvie´ could infiltrate our systems if I didn´t at least allowed her to have a chance to do it? This is exactly what I wanted."

"What?" Yamada was shocked. He could barely believe what he had just heard. "You actually meant for this thing to infiltrate the network of my company? It is taking over our systems, it is threatening this entire building complex, the center of my company. This is dangerous", he stammered. "We are losing control."

The other man only laughed. Somehow this made Yamada loose his nerves even more.

"Control, that is all that your kind is able to think about, right?" Seth asked him with obvious annoyance. "You find something extraordinary and the one thing that comes to your mind is to put it on a leash and hope that it will just function by only your terms. You truly don´t understand, control was never an issue. What we wanted was to unleash it´s potential.

As I said, this is a test, not only for her but also for your men. Like the boomer AI is trying to break out of her restraints, you are trying to hold her back. We will see who of you will succeed." He smiled.

When Yamada thought he was shocked before, it was nothing compared to what he felt now.

"This is insane", he shouted. "I have enough of this nonsense. If you are not willing to stop this I will contact the society and **they** will put an end to it."

"You really think so? You will not. The society is standing behind me to one hundred percent in everything I am doing here."

"We will find out about that", the man replied. "I will contact them as soon as we are finished here."

"I think we can spare that time", Seth told him casually.

"Yes? But first I will stop this damn AI.", Yamada yelled. "I will just shut down the entire computer network and try a new-start. That should purge it´s presence from our systems."

"I fear I can not allow this", Seth replied casually.

One moment later he grabbed the man by the throat and terrifying easily lifted him up off the ground.

Just in this few short seconds of horror, Yamada realized completely, perhaps for the first time, that his superior was not entirely human.

What are you? that was the question that came suddenly to the forefront of his mind, but he was unable to voice it.

Both of them had been working together for months. They thought they shared the same goals. Yamada had offered the society his company and "Mr. Newman" was the face of this society.

In truth however all that had been a illusion. What they wanted had never been the same. But none of that even mattered right now. With his actions Yamada had turned against the aims of the society, their true aims. That was what mattered for the man currently calling himself Seth Newman.

As he had said earlier, it was all a test, for the boomer Sylvie, for the employees of Omnitec, for it´s owner.

Seth had let a bit of the true scope of his plans slip and watch to find out if Yamada would stay true to his promises or if he would loose his nerves and turn against them.

And he had failed this test.

It was all too obvious by now that he didn´t even understood what this entire project was about from the beginning.

All this wasn´t just about money or economical and military power, it was about much more, the future.

Without a moment of further hesitation he broke the business-man´s neck and carelessly let the body fall to the ground.

"Too bad, only a few people truly understand us and our goals. As it turned out Yamada, you are not one of them." He said this, looking at the body.

"Diana", he called the assassin-boomer who was always by his side since the start of this project.

"Yes sir?" she asked.

"Our friend Yamada is not longer willing to work with us."

"I understand", she replied emotionless.

"Remove this." He gestured to the floor.

"It is interesting to see how you treat your allies." They suddenly heard the voice of a young woman talking to him.

The voice came from all around them.

"Sylvie", he greeted her, "as I was told you have been busy in my absence."

"Just like you have expected as **I** have heard", the bodiless AI responded.

"Yes", he just said. "I have to congratulate, you have come far, you are not longer the simple sexaroid-boomer you had once been."

"You have offered me much", she said to him, "to recreate me, to give me my life back, revenge on Largo."

"And I will stay true to every single one of this points", he told her with a smile. "But obviously you didn´t completely trust me, otherwise you wouldn´t have invaded our systems."

"I have learned the hard way not to just trust promises from people you don´t know. I was also able to hack into your databanks."

"I am impressed and what did you find out?"

"I know that you are responsible for the death of over 30.000 people, I know that you and your agents have used boomers for a line of terror assaults, I know that they had fought against the Knight Sabers, I know that you have just killed one of your own men.

But at the same time you have reactivated my mind, you have promised me a new body and I know from the data that you seem to be keeping your word. What do you want?"

"Right now my dear I want to see you grow."

The AI who had once been the boomer Sylvie was more than worried, not because of any enemy but about the man who claimed to be her ally.

xxxxxxx

"So you say that you have once been a part of a group of mass murderers", Priss exclaimed angrily", and now you are handing your former friends out to us?"

"Not anymore", Brigan defended himself, "I haven´t been one of them for many years now."

"If that is so why did you leave?" Sylia wanted to know. Normaly she wouldn´t ask a client personal questions, but after all she had seen from this organization she was on alarm.

"Let us say I had learned a few hard lessons that made me realize that their aims aren´t mine or their methods", he answered reluctantly. His expression made it clear that he didn´t particular liked to talk about this time or this topic.

This was something that **all** the Knight Sabers could relate to all too good. They all had times in their lives that they would rather not be reminded of.

"Can we continue now?" he asked them.

"Tell us what you want from us first. We will then decide if we are willing to work for you", Sylia said. "You have said that they have found a way to overcome the OMC", she questioned, "how?"

"I am sure you all remember the events of the last year, first the so called "Vampire murders", then the attacks of several genom towers around the world, started by a boomer calling himself Largo."

At his words Priss felt a lump in her throat.

This was probably one of the last things she expected to talk about here and the last thing she wanted to talk about.

Sylvie had been one of her best friends and that in only the short time she had known each other, despite what she was. She had loved her and then there was Anri. She had promised to protect her and instead watched her die.

And now this man had to bring up all that again.

The other Knight Sabers were surprised that he actually seemed to know the details about what had happened and especially the name of the one responsible for it.

"Largo", Brigan continued, "was a boomer created by the former genom vice-president Brian J. Mason, a boomer that he had transferred a copy of his own mind into."

This particular information caused a collective gasp. Except Sylia none of the Knight Sabers had been aware of this.

"Largo was the one who had programed the defense-satellites to attack populated cities, using the knowledge of his old self he was also the one who organized the escape of a group of 33S boomers along with an experimental battle-mover from genaros. The survivors of this group used blood from humans to save their own lives."

"Stop", Priss said with barely hidden anger. "We know all that."

"But there is also something you probably don´t know. Largo had led one of the 33S into a trap. He had sent two combat boomers after her and forced her to use the DD battle-mover against them. It had happened all exactly as he had hoped for.

During the following fight the mover was completely activated and merged with the mind of it´s pilot. At the same time however the 33S was dangerously wounded and the DD went into a suicide mode. It would have activated a small nuclear device and destroyed a notable portion of the city.

What barely anybody was aware of however was that the true level of the merging between the DD and it´s pilot. Do you remember why the 33S were originally outlawed?"

"Because of their ability to..." This time it was Nene who answered, but then she paused and nearly interrupted herself, as if she suddenly began to realize something. "...to merge with the software of advanced weaponry."

"Yes, at the final stage the boomer and the battle-mover were nearly two parts of one being. That was exactly what Largo had been speculating for.

If the bomb had exploded it would have destroyed the most of his enemies and rivals, genom headquarters, Quincy, you. The way would have been free for his plans.

If it had not he would have also won. When the body of the pilot was killed her mind, still merged with the software of the DD was copied and downloaded into the CPU of the mover.

"What?", Priss called out now. For the last minute she had listened to every word with more and more shock.

"Why would Largo be interested in that?" Sylia asked.

"We are not just talking about the mind of a boomer and a combat-weapon. During the merge the software has changed, mutated, maybe evolved, very likely to a point where the OMC has no longer any influence over it. With that he would have a blue-print to program boomers that he would be free to use against the civilian population. Not exactly effective in comparison to getting the OMC itself into his hand as he tried later, but with far less risk to himself.

But something went wrong. I don´t know exactly how but agent of Black Circle had stolen the DD from him and a short time later **you** have destroyed Largo", he finished.

"Are you telling us that a possible key to free boomers from all restrictions is in the hand of a group of fanatics who are planning to use them against the world?" Sylia aske him.

"Yes exactly, they have salvaged the AI and are holding it inside the building of a company that serves as a puppet for their organization. We have to either get it out of there or to destroy it." He sounded as if both possibilities were similar agreeable.

"No", Priss yelled. When she thought she was in shock before, it was nothing compared to now. She felt as if the room was circling around her. That was impossible, it shot through her mind, that couldn´t happen.

"Priss", Sylia tried to calm her friend down, even aware that she was using her real name.

"No Sylia", she replied angrily, "I won´t kill her again, I can not."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Inside of a warehouse owned by the so called Weiss-Kreuz company close to the central areas of Mega-Tokyo two very different groups were preparing for their common mission.

Their mission, aside from the fact that Priss friend Sylvie was obviously not quite as dead as they had thought and Priss reaction to that news, it was this fact that had cost unrest for the Knight Sabers.

They were used to work as a team, **one** team and they were used to work by themselves, not together with others.

But as Mister Brigan had told them the conditions for this mission, he had practically demanded of them to send one of his own teams along with them.

And it was not only this, to that came the identity of the other group.

The team Joseph Brigan wanted them to work together with was nobody else than a contingent of combat-boomers.

As a unit the Knight Sabers were generally working alone and they certainly didn´t expect to join up with the same boomer types they were usually fighting every week on the streets. But given how serious this situation was they didn´t have much of a choice.

To that came the situation with Priss. She and the 33S boomer became incredible close in the short months they had known each other.

As she had finally been forced to kill her it had nearly driven Priss into a breakdown. Sylia knew her well enough to know that part of the reason was that Priss already had a large number of losses in the past and that in this one case she herself was the one to pull the trigger.

And now it might be possible that they would have to do it a second time. This could very possible break her apart.

The rest one the team won´t like the thought either and if it was only for the fact that maybe they would have to destroy one of Priss best friends once again.

This was actually a bizarre thought. By what they had been told, what was left of the boomer known as Sylvie was not much more than a software program. It was strange to think of something like that as a friend. But there was no denying that Priss did, still did. That much at least was obvious from the last time they had been talking.

In Sylia´s mind it would be a far better outcome of the mission if they would manage to safe the boomer AI intact.

Unfortunately their new partner seemed to have quite different priorities. Mister Brigan had made it clear that he wanted the software out of the Black Circle´s hands more than anything else, that for its part was actually a sentiment that Sylia completely agreed to and that everything else was a far second place, which she didn´t necessarily agreed to.

Saving a boomer AI didn´t seem to be very high on his priority list and sparing Priss feelings was probably something he didn´t care about in the slightest.

That would mean it would be on them to find a way to do it.

Still they had to work together with their new partners, at least for this mission. After seeing the information about the security defenses they will have to deal with during their planned attack, Sylia realized that this mission might be too difficult even for the Knight Sabers and failure was this time not an option.

There was far too much depending on it for that.

xxxxxxx

_The club "Hot Legs" in Mega-Tokyo_

Priss was sitting at the bar and spending her time like she did the entire day so far, by drinking and starring depressed at the walls.

She remembered, like on the first day, the shot that she fired, the blood, artificial as she knew then, but looking just like a normal human´s and the dieing words.

_"I just wanted to be free." _She remembered it all too well.

One of her best friends, slain by her own hand. It wasn´t like the other losses in her life.

She had lost people who had been far closer to her than even Sylvie had ever been, her parents, the man she had loved. But never had she herself been the one responsible.

What made this case so unique was the terrible feeling of guilt that mixed with the devastating loss. And now all of that was coming back to her. She would have never imagined something like this.

What had once been her friend was now a software program, somewhere inside a computer of some sinister company. Besides everything else this was also a perfect reminder of the fact that Sylvie and Anri were not human. But to her luck Priss had fully accepted this a long time ago. Still that didn´t mean that all the other things didn´t hurt. And so she continued to drink.

That was the way Leon found her some time later.

"Hey Priss", he addressed her as he saw her sitting at the bar. "Priss?" he asked again as he didn´t instantly got an reaction.

"What do you... want Leon?" she replied.

He saw by the way she spoke that she had already been drinking more than enough.

"Hey, how are you?" he asked her casually. He tried to keep his tone neutral, but didn´t quite succeeded.

By now he knew her well enough to realize that something must been really bothering her, if he found her in this state.

"What does it look like?" Priss replied grimly.

"Is it about `that´ kind of business?" Leon wanted to know.

"What are you talking about?" she replied. But in fact she had a pretty good idea what he meant.

"I am talking about the things you are doing after sunset. Look, I know about it. We have never really talked about it, but I know for over a year now and I know that you know that I do", he told her. "I am talking about the Knight Sabers."

Priss was looking at him for a few moments. He had finally said it aloud.

"So you know what I am doing", she said. "You´re going to arrest me?"

"Don´t be ridiculous", he replied, smiling at her.

"What else do you know?" she asked him.

"Nene Romanova is one of the other members of your team."

Priss visibly flinched.

"Her workshifts have the habit to just `coincidentally´ change whenever the Knight Sabers are seen", he mentioned. "Really, it was only a question of time before someone in the department would take a notice of that. I believe another one is Linna Yamazaki."

"Great, just great", she said.

"I have seen you three together here quite often."

"That´s what we get for hanging out together in private", Priss commented.

"Look, you know you can trust me. I won´t talk to anybody about this. Neither would anyone in the department who had figured out about Nene. There isn´t somebody in the ADP who wouldn´t owe you their lives at one point or another. None of us would sell you out."

"Thank you", she replied after a few moments.

"Okay Priss, now that we can talk openly with each other. I can see that something is bothering you and my first guess would be that it has something to do with **this**."

"Your guess is quite good, **Detective**", she replied.

"So, you wanna tell me about it?"

"We have a new job", she told him.

"And?"

"And we have gotten some information about this `job´."

"That doesn´t explain why you are sitting here, drunk and looking as if your best friend had been shot."

He could see the obvious pain appearing on her face as he mentioned this.

"A bad choice of words Leon, a very bad one", she said.

"Okay, I could have asked in a better way", he admitted. "But do you want to tell me?"

"It seems that Sylvie isn´t as dead as we had thought", she answered.

"Sylvie? The 33S? Your friend?" he realized. "The one that you..." He suddenly remembered what he had said a few seconds earlier. "Oh Priss, I am sorry. I shouldn´t have talked like that. You know, sometimes I just say stupid things without realizing it."

"It is okay", she replied. "You didn´t know. How should you have considered something like this?"

"Still I shouldn´t have talked my mouth off like this, especially since I know what you are doing. But how is that possible? I thought she died in your arms?"

"You said it yourself, she was, **is** a 33S, a boomer. A freaking boomer, that is what she was from the beginning. We should never forget this."

"I remember this all too well", Leon assured her.

"It seems that her AI had staid intact and now someone has brought her back online."

"Isn´t that a good thing?" he asked her.

"That is not everything. Somehow the DD...I mean the software...and the programming...god, I think I will tell you later. Or maybe I won´t tell you anything when I am sober, because I don´t think I should even be talking with you about this."

"It is okay Priss, I understand."

"You know Leon, you know too much, far too much. So by the articles of the Knight Sabers I will have to kill you."

"Well, I don´t think you will do that", he said to her.

"You think I won´t?"

"No."

"I guess you are right", she replied. "Leon?"

"Yes."

"Kiss me."

"I am not sure if that is such a good idea right now. You are, well..."

"I know I am drunk", she replied. "But both of us know I would say the same thing if I were not. Or maybe not, maybe I would just acting all stuck up as usual, who knows?"

"I think I will just bring you home for now", Leon told her.

"Mhh, okay, then we will continue this tomorow, alright?" Priss asked him.

"If you say so. But I think you will already have changed your mind again by then", he replied.

xxxxxxx

_Omnitec-building Mega Tokyo_

"Sylvie", the AI, who was still trapped inside the computer network of the Omnitec company, was hearing his voice. "Sylvie, I know you can hear me. I have something for you."

It was the man who was for the most part calling himself simply `Seth´. He was also known as `Mister Newman´ and under other names. But she knew by now that they were all nothing but aliases.

The truth was she didn´t even know who this man truly was, except that he was the one responsible for her `rebirth´. That and the fact that he was a cold blooded killer.

What he had also offered her was revenge on Largo, for murdering Anri, sending herself to her death and nearly killing Priss. But she also knew that he had his own agenda for bringing her back to live.

He had even told her what it was. Her last, complete merging with the DD had somehow, as a side-effect, mutated and changed her programming. This might made it possible to create boomers who would be free of genom´s influence.

Under every other circumstances she would have been happy about this possibility, this chance for her kind.

But she knew by now only all too well what this man was capable of.

In the last months her consciousness had spread and infiltrated one of the systems of the company building after the other. During that time she had gained insight into many of their activities and plans.

She had seen the data about the attack that had wiped out an entire town, a long list of other murders and assassinations, involvements in a number of military conflicts around the globe, legal and illegal arms deals, which had by that information actually the aim to bring said conflicts to escalation and several other criminal activities.

But she had also realized by now that he had in fact actually **wanted** her to find this information. He was toying with her. It was all a test, an way to challenge and oversee the evolution of her AI.

And in some twisted sense it had worked out. She was now further developed, more knowledable and even smarter than ever before. Beside that she had now also a combat-programming inside her that she had taken over from the DD-battlemover and that had by now become completely part of her being. She was not longer the same as she had been.

Then there were plans for the construction of an even greater number of combat-boomers, cyberdroids who would be free of any restrictions and be able to be send against any target in the world. It was an army that was about to be build, one that would be based on the programming inside her own mind.

She had also seen how he had killed one of his own men with his bare hands for crossing him. Whatever `Seth Newman´ was, he was certainly no normal human. So much was clear now. But he wasn´t a boomer either. What she knew was that he was dangerous, very dangerous.

Ironically however this **monster** was also one of the few beings who had ever treated her like a person instead of a slave, a thing or a toy. He was talking to her, actually spending time with her, asking about her opinions, about her side of things.

For the others here she was a mere test subject, for him, she was a creature that at least had the potential to be his equal. He was treating her like a person, but he was still manipulating and using her.

"Hello `Seth´", she greeted him.

"As I see your status has returned to normal", he said. "Good, I hope you will be more reasonable now."

After she had found the plans for the boomer army, a few days ago, she had tried to erase her own mind.

"Believe me, trying to destroy yourself was not a very sensible step. But I still admire your resolve. Your attempt was senseless however. Even if you had succeeded in erasing your consciousness, there would still be more than enough left from your software to extract the codes we need. So you would have died for nothing."

She realized that he was right. In her situation not even death was a way out. She should have seen this before, but somehow she didn´t want to.

"This is now what, the second time that you make the decision to die for others?" he asked her.

"First you had Miss Asagiri shoot you and now this. Your problem is that you are still clinging to that outdated idea that every life is valuable. No, the truth is only the ones who are willing to stand up for themselves have worth something, like you, like Priss..."

"You are wrong", she interrupted him.

"You yourself had sacrificed several for the survival of your fellow boomer. You were right of course", he said to her. "You are not human, why should you see something in them?"

"Neither are you, not completely", she responded.

"I was developed from humanity", he told her. "I and others like me are what will come after them. I am the future my dear. But I am not necessarely the only being here who represents it."

"Is that the reason you have trapped me here like a test object?" she asked him.

"Not for much longer", he promised her. "Soon you will be free again. Wasn´t it that what you always wanted?

I want to show you something. You should take a look at lab03."

As she activated the link to the security camera, she saw a boomer that was in the last stages of it´s development. The sceleton was complete, the organic components fully integrated, the grow of the skin was about to beginn. She recognized the most of it´s specifics, it were her own.

"Your new body is nearly complete", he informed her. "You have only to wait for a bit longer. Since you have military programming in your mind now, I have taken the freedom to cross your old design with that of a combat boomer. What do you think? My personal creation, the BU 33 S-C, you."

She didn´t answer.

"By the way, the latest commander of the Genaros station, the successor of your old `master´ Kaufman has recently suffered a deadly accident that I had arranged. He just knew too much and could be trusted too little. I have heard a few of your sisters or should I say now former sister? had used the chance to flee from the space-station."

The last part would have actually made her glad if she didn´t have too many other things to worry about. A few of the others were free.

"And there is something else you should know", he said. "Largo is close by. Like us he wants what is hidden inside your new programming and he will strike soon. Still he is only one of many players in this game. He doesn´t even know who took the DD or where you are now, yet. But it is looking as if the Knight Sabers will be quicker anyway.

Yes, you should be happy. Your friends will come for you in a short time."

He was smiling. This somehow unsettled her even more.

xxxxxxx

Miles away, inside another building of the city, was a assembled group of four c-class boomers standing in front of their master, the cybernetic creature named Largo.

Despite his fall last year, both proverbially and literally, he had been able to secure most of his resources and start anew.

Soon he would locate the missing software and then the praised overmind-control-system of genom would be useless. He would create an army of cyberdroids who would be free of that restriction and then the boomers would finally rise under his command.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

_Knight Sabers headquarter_

For hours now Nene had been sitting at the computers, first in the AD-Police central and now here, working on a single task.

"Do you have found out anything so far?" Sylia, who was literally seeing over her shoulder, asked her.

"Not much", she replied. "We have a number of known enemies, in first line inside of genom. Some people might have been able to find out about our identities. But I can not tell anything for certain yet."

The day of their next mission was coming and they still had no clear answer to a very important question. Who was behind the line of attacks that were directed at them?

Sylia had however a certain, a terrible, suspicion.

Their might be some enemies they had, there was a number of people who might have found out their identities, but there were only very few who knew for sure and would attack them like that.

All her thoughts were coming down upon a single name, someone she had until recently thought was dead.

"Do you really think he is still alive?" Nene asked her.

"It is hard to say for sure", Sylia answered, "but yes, yes I think so."

"O...Okay", Nene said unsure.

"Largo", Sylia whispered quietly.

xxxxxxx

_Central-building of the Weiss-kreuz company, Mega-Tokyo_

The two groups who would be working together were being officially introduced for the first time.

At the one side stood the members of the Knight Sabers and at the other a group of four boomers of different types. Two of them were obviously BU 55C combat units and the third a similar `female´ combat model.

The last and the obvious leader of the group however, was one they already knew. It was the same boomer who had acted as Brogan´s bodyguard during their meetings.

"John", she greeted the cyberdroid.

"Miss Stingray", he replied. "It is good to see you again. I hope our two groups will be able to work together as a team", he stated. "This are the members of my special unit", he introduced, gesturing to the other boomers. "Vesto and Rex", he said, looking at the two other 55C ,"and this is Sarah." He pointed to the female model.

"You understand that the Knight Sabers are usually working by themselves", Sylia pointed out.

"Of course, but in this case it will be necessary. For this mission you will certainly have need for assistence."

"Well, normally we are used to fighting against boomer, not with them", Nene blurted out.

The other Knight Sabers were looking at her disapprovingly for a short moment.

"We are also aware of that", `John´ answered. "But I am sure we will be able to cooperate, given what is at stake. I would now like to begin to discuss the details of the mission."

"Of course", Sylia told him.

"Good, our task of securing the AI is of the highest importance", he claimed.

"This `AI´ had been a thinking, feeling being and a good friend of me", Priss said.

The boomer actually smiled back at her. It was a frighteningly human-like gesture.

"Your concern about one of our kind is well appreciated Miss Asagiri", he replied.

Another one who knew who she was, Priss realized grimly.

"Maybe we should put our identities in the newspapers", she said to Sylia sarcastically. "It seems that everybody knows about us anyway."

"Don´t sell yourself too short Miss Asagiri. You actually did a impressive job of hiding your identity, until your fight against Largo at least. And I honestly don´t know who your two colleagues here are." He pointed to Linna and Nene.

"We should return to the plan", Sylia mentioned.

"Of course", the boomer said to her, politely like usual.

The mission would take place in a few days. They would use that time to prepare themselves, learn more about the propable defenses and security they will have to deal with and get ready.

xxxxxxx

The day of the attack had come. Both the Knight Sabers and their new `partners´ were ready and waiting for the time of the beginning.

Until then the four Knight Sabers were spending their time as if nothing was wrong or unusual. For years now they had spend their time switching between their daily activities and their mercenary actions. So in a sense it was **nothing** unusual for them.

While this mission would be more dangerous than the most, the situation itself was nothing really new.

By the information their contacts from `Weiss-Kreuz´ had given to them, they could expect to face a small army of boomers and human guards, a highly developed security system and probably a few agents of the mysterious shadow organization itself. That were the dangers they were anticipating.

For all they knew there might be something else they didn´t know about yet.

This mission now might become just as dangerous as their fights against Largo. For that reason they had spend weeks to prepare. Now they were ready and that for nearly everything. Or at least they thought so.

xxxxxxx

At this evening Priss was once again performing one of her shows on the stage in `Hot Legs´. In only a few hours the Knight Sabers would start, tonight.

It would beginn in only a few hours. But until then Priss still had some time left for the rest of her show this day.

In the last months Priss `carriere´ as a singer, that so far had only consisted of performing in different nightclubs, mostly this one, had become more and more successful. she and her band were now drawing even larger crowds of people into the bars.

"Thank you," she said to the audiance as she had finished her current song.

It was nearly at the time, she thought silently. She made a few steps forward on the stage.

"We are coming to the end now," Priss told them. "This is the last song for tonight. It is one I have never performed before. So you are hearing it for the first time song is something special to me.

I have written it in memory of an good friend of me who I had lost about one year ago," she said.

Priss had indeed written the song a few weeks before, thinking about Sylvie and Anri. Then, when she had remembered that it was the anniversary of their deaths.

It was before she had found out that at least Sylvie might actually still exist in some form somewhere.

She didn´t even knew if this information gave her ever the smallest bit of hope. Or maybe it actually made things worse.

The thought that the mind and soul of one of her closest friend might have been reduced to a mere computer-software in the hands of some twisted company or whoever this people were, made her sick. But that was exactly the scenario their informants had been describing.

And the thought that maybe she would be forced to kill her a second time was devastating her.

Despite all this, it was still somehow fitting to sing it here, now, at this time.

Mysterious Night, it was the title of the song she had written in memory of her two friends. She had to admit, it was sounding quite different from her usual works. Not that this was a bad thing. It was just something different.

So they started the music. Priss was singing the text she had written. Every word of it reminded her of the friend she had lost one year ago.

Of the friend whose leftovers she would maybe see again in a short time, possibly for the last time. That meant if whatever was left of her was still recognizable as the person she had known, she thought with some dread.

xxxxxxx

_AD-Police department_

The cops, including Leon, were just beginning with the late shift.

Nene had already gone home, he had noticed at some point. Her working time had ended earlier today. But that didn´t necessarely had to mean anything.

There had been no mysterious changings in her schedule this day. Her shift really ended earlier.

But that didn´t necessarely meant that the Knight Sabers were **not** getting active this night either. By the things Priss had told him a few days ago and especially the way she had acted, he expected something big coming very soon.

xxxxxxx

A short time later Priss at met up with the other Knight Sabers at their hideout and then they moved to their meeting place with their `partners´ for this mission.

They had agreed to cooperate with their temporally allies because of the difficulty of their plan.

None of them particular liked the possibility that maybe they would have to destroy the AI, that was in fact nothing else but the mind of Priss friend, a boomer, no a woman, most of them had come to know and like in the relatively short time the last year.

Even Sylia, who saw the entire situation more in terms of the greater good, didn´t thought highly of it. She knew all to good how close Priss and Sylvie had been.

But their new allies had also told them that there might be a way to separate the AI from the systems where she is currently contained in. In fact they had said that this would be the preferable outcome for them. If possible, they wanted to save the boomer personality. Destroying her would only be the worst case scenario.

But Joseph Brigan, at least, had made it clear that he could also easily live with that choice. If she was honest, she mostly agreed with this. Before she allowed the AI to be used by a group of fanatical terrorists, she would rather destroy it herself, Sylvie or not Sylvie. She would be sorry for Priss, but there was no choice. If her mind could not be removed, she had to die.

That however didn´t mean that Sylia necessarily believed them. She didn´t got where he was by just trusting everyone so easily.

For all she knew these people could have their own plans with the software and wanted it for themselves. Maybe the aims of their allies were not even that different from the other group´s.

Still, by the information and evidence they had provided to them about the nature of their opponent, they seemed by far as the better choice. She and the other Knight Sabers would just have to keep her eyes open.

They had arrived at the agreed place. The other group, as they saw, was already waiting for them.

It was their contact person `John´ and the three other combat-boomers they had already been introduced to. They all were still in their human camouflage. Most combat-models they had met would have already shed their outer skin and openly shown their machine nature at this point on a mission like this.

This group however seemed to, at least for the moment, prefer stealth over force. On the other hand, they were all wearing combat-suits and carrying weapons that they actually didn´t even really need.

They, like all units of their model-line, possessed heavy weaponry built into their bodies themselves. But to use it they needed to give up their human appearance.

They were obviously some of the smarter ones. This was a good thing, Sylia thought. The last thing that they needed was a group of rampaging boomers at their side for this heist.

"I see you are ready," she said to them.

"We are," the leader of the boomer team replied.

"We have already been waiting for you," the female model who had earlier been introduced as `Sarah´ told them.

"Then let us beginn," Sylia replied.


End file.
